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From: rd70@lafibm.lafayette.edu
Subject: Inform Conversation Topic Parsing
Message-ID: <c97cb$db1f.69@news.sisna.com>
Date: Sat, 09 Dec 1995 20:11:30 GMT
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Hi...quick question.

I'm using the example file Frobozzi.inf to parse conversation topics in a game I'm 
writing.  It works fine, except for one thing.  It only works with asking questions 
on topics, not telling characters about things.  I think I've fixed this by 
re-writting the 'tell' grammar and writing a function much like the Question 
function except it calls RunLife Tell.  It seems to work.  However, when a player 
types:

> Susan, tell me about the brand new car.

It doesn't work.  I expect that it has to do with the re-written grammar...I tried 
giving a "Grammar" function to the character, but that doesn't seem to work (by 
checking to see if NextWord() is "tell" "me" "about" and then call Question...).

Also, I want the program to check to see if a question has already been asked...I 
set up an alias under the Topic class, for n_to and set it to 0 in the class 
definition...then I have it set to 1 when a character asks about it...BUT...how do I 
check this?  I tried doing a before function in the Topic class and that didn't 
work...I don't want to have to put (if n_to == 1) in every single Topic answer under 
every single character...is there an elegant way to do this?

Thanks in advance for any help,
DJR

(PS...is next year's IF contest still on?  When are the deadlines for playtesting?  
For the games themselves?)




